Request for Applications: Data Repository for Security Research and Innovation

Scope

• The underlying idea of this topic is to avoid that security and disaster risk research projects obtain and prepare data that at the end of the projects is simply lost instead of being stored and shared for reuse.
• In the security domain, due to its specificities, the special categories of data involved or/and unique limitations, which may call for additional requirements, a consolidated, common research database is particularly desired. It is of utmost importance that security practitioners are provided with an increased interoperability and improved (cross-border) exchange of data thanks to harmonised data file formats across Europe, which would easily take into account technological evolutions, i.e., be adaptable in time. Such a lack of realistic, up-to-date and sufficient training and testing data for research purposes and consequently the need for a database, data repository or any other effective and useful tool(s) to gather, manage and store varying security research data, have been regularly raised by the projects working in the area of security. The same is true of data on disaster risk management where national or regional analysis and forecasting databases or national disaster risk assessments can be fragmented or sealed without reasonable open, sustainable access to the wider community
• As a follow up of the outcomes and results of the LAGO project coming from the 2021 data topic: HORIZON-CL3-2021-FCT-01-04: Improved access to fighting crime and terrorism research data, the successful proposal, should subsequently focus on creation and deployment of a fully functional and operational common research data repository, which will extend to cover other security research areas.
• The LAGO project is currently developing the skeleton of how such a repository of R&I data should be created, by providing a detailed roadmap consisting of a clear set of rules, conditions and characteristics that such a consolidated database should have. This LAGO roadmap will provide technical, legal and ethical requirements for a training and testing research data repository mostly in the area of fighting crime and terrorism, but the same project will already take into account possible applications of identified solutions in different security research domains, such as infrastructure resilience, border management or disaster resilience. The LAGO roadmap will also assess if the repository should be centralised or distributed, how to deal with “aging” data, how efficiently projects should exchange data among them taking into account security R&I specificities.
• Building on the skeleton of LAGO, the newly developed data repository will enable security community (researchers, practitioners, industry, policy makers) access the scientifically satisfactory amount of up-to-date high quality and realistic data which is or was used to develop reliable (mostly digital and based on AI but also non-digital and not linked with big data) tools, technologies and solutions in support of security research and innovation. This data repository could also be very useful for verification and validation of new innovative security solutions developed under various calls in the most recent Work Programme.
• Taking into account the complexity of the future repository, a multi-faceted approach will be needed and the proposal, apart from the roadmap’s findings developed by LAGO, should also build on, and not duplicate, LAGO’s outcomes regarding the following aspects:
  • What exact types of data should be stored in the repository;
  • Interoperability with existing operational systems;
  • Interoperability/compatibility with European open science cloud (EOSC), with the TESSERA project as well as other potentially relevant architectures and initiatives such as European Data Spaces or GAIA-X;
  • How to search for data;
  • Data models for security research – Harmonising of data formats;
  • Concept of operations for the use of the repository by/during EU-funded security R&I projects, modalities of use, user profiles/schemes, etc.
  • Legal issues, avoidance of any bias, accessibility levels related to the sensitivity of various data sets, solutions for annotation as well as for the aging of the data, etc.
• The project should have a maximum estimated duration of 3 years.

Funding Information

• Budget (EUR) – Year 2025: 3 000 000
• Contributions: around 3000000

Expected Outcomes

• Projects’ results are expected to contribute to some or all of the following outcomes:
  • Accurately gathered, stored, managed and preserved research training and testing data, disaggregated by gender if relevant, which is verified and selected in order to be realistic, up-to-date and sufficient, as well as to make research more trustworthy and reproducible;
  • Researchers and projects can further increase the impact and visibility of their work by not just archiving research materials, but also opening them up for reuse and citation by other relevant actors and stakeholders;
  • Properly shared and re-used relevant research data can save lives, help develop solutions and maximise the knowledge;
  • Enhanced collaboration among relevant research community, improved trust between researchers and practitioners/end-users, facilitated co-operation between different research projects and reduced burden of wasted research or lost results.

Eligibility Criteria

• Entities eligible to participate:
  • Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from nonassociated third countries or international organisations (including international European research organisations) is eligible to participate (whether it is eligible for funding or not), provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation have been met, along with any other conditions laid down in the specific call/topic.
  • A ‘legal entity’ means any natural or legal person created and recognised as such under national law, EU law or international law, which has legal personality and which may, acting in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations, or an entity without legal personality.
• To become a beneficiary, legal entities must be eligible for funding.
• To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries:
  • the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions:
    • Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.
  • the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States:
    • Aruba (NL), Bonaire (NL), Curação (NL), French Polynesia (FR), French Southern and Antarctic Territories (FR), Greenland (DK), New Caledonia (FR), Saba (NL), Saint Barthélemy (FR), Sint Eustatius (NL), Sint Maarten (NL), St. Pierre and Miquelon (FR), Wallis and Futuna Islands (FR).
  • countries associated to Horizon Europe;
    • Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Türkiye, Ukraine, United Kingdom.

For more information, visit EC.